1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to caller identification services in a telephone system, and more particularly, is directed to a selective telephone caller identification service.
2. Background Information
With the advancement of digital telecommunication technology, more and more features and services are being offered by telephone service providers (i.e., a telephone company). For example, one such feature is caller identification (ID) wherein the called party (i.e., recipient or receiver) is able to identify and display the calling party""s (i.e., caller""s) telephone number before the called party answers the call. This function is currently implemented with an agreement among three parties, namely, 1) the called party, 2) the calling party and 3) the telephone service provider. First, the telephone service provider needs to provide the caller ID service and send out the caller ID information with the telephone ringing signal. Second, the called party must subscribe to the caller ID service and have a caller ID box coupled to the telephone line. Third, the calling party must agree to release his caller ID to the public. The first two parts are controlled by the telephone service provider and the called party. If the called party subscribes to the caller ID service through the telephone service provider and has a caller ID box available, then he will receive the caller ID information when his telephone rings. The third part is controlled by the calling party. If the calling party does not want to release his private telephone number to public, that is, to any caller ID service, he can ask the telephone service provider to completely block the calling party""s telephone number to any caller ID subscriber.
The consequence of this action by the calling party is that if the called party recipient subscribes to the caller ID service, the called party""s telephone would not ring when a call is placed from the private telephone of the calling party. This is referred herein as a double side security crash, that is, where the calling party blocks the caller ID when the called party uses a caller ID service. The only time that the telephone rings for a called party with a caller ID service is when his caller ID service has clearly identified the calling party""s ID. There is no classification of the telephone blockage. In other words, the blockage will block the calling party""s ID to any party""s caller ID service which receives the calling party""s telephone calls, regardless of whether the calling party is the called party""s family member, or if the calling party is making an emergency call. This black and white blockage may cause some problems in certain situations.
For example, some people do not want to receive unidentified telephone calls or commercial calls. This might be the reason that a person subscribes to the caller ID services. If the calling party blocks his or her ID completely, the telephone number he dials will not ring the called party""s telephone, which includes a caller ID box, because the caller ID service classifies this incoming call as an anonymous call. The result is that the called party may miss some very important calls that he may not want to miss. This is currently a burden for some people who own a caller ID box and subscribe to the caller ID service, or for somebody who chooses to block their private telephone numbers from the public.
Another situation where this double side security crash could cause a problem is with a security computer call back service. For example, some companies provide a defensive call back service for employees who want to remotely log on to a company computer (for example, from their home). In most cases, the employees provide their telephone number to the computer service so that their numbers are saved in the computer database. If a dial-in ring is received by the company computer service, the security calling number identification service first finds out if the calling party""s number matches any of the telephone numbers in the database. If there is a match, further security checks proceed. If the calling party""s telephone number is not within the database, the telephone call is rejected. In this situation, if the calling party has blocked his or her number from the public, the company""s computer security service will not be able to determine the incoming telephone number, and the call will be rejected.
According to Bell Atlantic, the current solution for this complete blockage problem is as follows. If the calling party has chosen to completely block his telephone number, he can perform an online unblock to a specific telephone number. For example, if the calling party is calling a party who subscribes to the caller ID service, his telephone call will not ring the called party because the called party""s caller ID classifies the telephone call as an unknown caller and will not activate the ringer. At the same time, the calling party will hear a message from the telephone company service recording center informing the calling party that if he wants the telephone call to go through, the calling party can temporarily suspend the caller ID block by pushing *82. After pushing *82, the called party""s caller ID box will display the calling party""s telephone number and name, and the telephone will ring.
Although Bell Atlantic""s current approach has solved part of the problem, it is not a handy solution for customers. If the calling party is dialing in an urgent situation (e.g., calling a doctor""s office), he may have difficulty determining how to enable the telephone call to proceed. This is especially true for children or people with language understanding problems. For the computer security defensive dial-in service, it could also be a burden, because the company""s computer may not wait for the telephone number to be unblocked before it rejects the dial-in request.
Once a calling party has decided to release his caller ID to the called party, it is possible that someone who is monitoring either the calling party""s or called party""s telephone line will be able to identify both the calling party""s caller ID information and the communication content. This could likely occur if either the caller or receiving party""s phone is of a cellular type.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a selective telephone caller identification service that overcomes the aforementioned problems with the prior art.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a selective telephone caller identification service that provides a way for a caller who subscribes to a telephone caller ID or blocking service to control the way in which his telephone number is released to and withheld from called parties.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a selective telephone caller identification service that provides a further security operation by encrypting/decrypting the caller ID.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a selective telephone caller identification service that enables use of detailed schemes on the receiver side as to how to handle the blocked caller ID by using a header of one or two bits.
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, a method of selective telephone caller identification includes the steps of providing a list of telephone numbers of second parties to which a first party is willing to release identification information regarding the first party. This list is supplied to a telephone company by the first party if the first party subscribes to a call blocking service with the telephone company. Then, the list of telephone numbers is stored by the telephone company in a database. When the first party dials a telephone number to make a telephone call, the telephone company determines whether the first party subscribes to the call blocking service with the telephone company. If the first party does subscribe to the call blocking service, the telephone company searches the list of stored telephone numbers when the first party dials a telephone number to make a telephone call to determine if the dialed telephone number is on the list of stored telephone numbers. When it is determined that the dialed telephone number is not on the list of telephone numbers, the telephone ID information of the first party is blocked by the telephone company. When it is determined that the first party subscribes to the call blocking service and that the dialed telephone number is on the list of telephone numbers, caller ID information is provided when connected between the first party and the second party by the telephone company. At such time, the identification information regarding the first party is encrypted and sent to the second party.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a method of selective telephone caller identification includes the steps of providing a list of telephone numbers of second parties to which a first party is willing to release identification information regarding the first party. Then, the list of telephone numbers is stored in a database. When the first party dials a telephone number to make a telephone call, a determination is made whether the first party subscribes to the call blocking service. If the first party does subscribe to the call blocking service when the first party dials a telephone number to make a telephone call, a search of the list of stored telephone numbers is conducted to determine if the dialed telephone number is on the list of stored telephone numbers. When it is determined that the first party subscribes to the call blocking service and that the dialed telephone number is on the list of telephone numbers, a connection is provided between the first party and the second party. At such time, the identification information regarding the first party is encrypted. Then the encrypted identification information of the first party is sent to the second party.